Goonhub
08-08-2023, 01:20 AM
I am posting this threat as a result of making this PR: https://github.com/goonstation/goonstation/pull/15266
It appears to be several people's opinion that forensics, in it's current implementation, isn't very fun.
At the moment it either works as an instant "gotcha" if someone wears no gloves or latex gloves due to partial print matching, or it turns into a slog of trying to brute-force guess a fingerprint by checking every single security record in order.
Additionally, the fact that the vast majority of gloves leave no prints except for a glove ID and glove material makes it a total chore to crawl through the entire station and scan anyone who has gloves which could match. On top of that, a lot of people will simply discard or destroy their old gloves after being done with a crime, making the entire chase to find the gloves entirely pointless.
In the PR thread, glamurio and flaborized proposed that the system could use some more depth, and rely less on the matching "minigame" to instantly find out who did the thing.
My suggestion would be the following:
If you put it all together you could for instance know you are chasing someone with insuls, but you also know they are very likely a red haired human.
I am looking into other ideas for forensic gathering, such as swabbing or other tests. Anything that would make forensic gathering more fun!
It appears to be several people's opinion that forensics, in it's current implementation, isn't very fun.
At the moment it either works as an instant "gotcha" if someone wears no gloves or latex gloves due to partial print matching, or it turns into a slog of trying to brute-force guess a fingerprint by checking every single security record in order.
Additionally, the fact that the vast majority of gloves leave no prints except for a glove ID and glove material makes it a total chore to crawl through the entire station and scan anyone who has gloves which could match. On top of that, a lot of people will simply discard or destroy their old gloves after being done with a crime, making the entire chase to find the gloves entirely pointless.
In the PR thread, glamurio and flaborized proposed that the system could use some more depth, and rely less on the matching "minigame" to instantly find out who did the thing.
My suggestion would be the following:
- All gloves now obfuscate prints, no more partial print matching. Touching something without gloves or with gloves which do not cover your fingers will still leave prints as before.
- Touching something now always shows the glove's material and ID.
- Touching something now leaves "additional forensic material" which may lead towards the identity of the criminal without ever clearly pointing them out.
For instance, there could be trace amounts of material left behind hinting at the person's mutantrace (hair and skin flakes for humans, scale traces for saurians, tuft of brown hair for monkeys...). Or it could lead toward's a person's hair/scale/horn/whatever color by finding 'discarded pigments'. It makes admittedly little sense you cannot get DNA from these, but it'd give you a lead to work with. Alternatively, i could cut the DNA scanning element of the forensic analyser entirely and make the crew rely on other tools to test for DNA (swabbing, sampling...).
- Another example would be the smoking while touching something would leave behind ash
If you put it all together you could for instance know you are chasing someone with insuls, but you also know they are very likely a red haired human.
I am looking into other ideas for forensic gathering, such as swabbing or other tests. Anything that would make forensic gathering more fun!